It seemed like months had passed in the room with Krystal eying me, the silence and me not doing anything when it was actually only a few seconds. I didn’t know how to react and thought of getting up and greeting her but she was a step ahead. Krystal walked to me and I immediately thought she was going to curse at me, humiliate me or something like what we see in dramas, but no. The doll put her hand forward.

“Krystal Jung”, she said. “But of course you already know that.” I hesitated and looked at Chen but he looked just as surprised as I was. It was Kris who gave me a reassuring nod and I managed to shake hands with her.

“Go Ji Eun”, I answered. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m sure it is”, she nonchalantly let go of my hand and looked at Chen. “Are you going to hold a press conference?”

“No”, Lee So Man answered. “He is just a rookie. We’re only releasing a statement and Chen can write a few words of his own on Sns. That’ll due.” Lee So Man got up. “Please try to bear the press as much as you can.”

“I will do my best”, I bowed. We all watched him leave with the managers and the only ones left in the room were Kris, Chen, Su Ho, Krystal and me.

“Eun ah”, Chen said. “I’m really sorry.”

“It’s not your fault”, I smiled.

“No it is”, he exhaled. “I should have been more careful. In the future I’ll make sure we hang out in groups so articles like these don’t appear again.”

“Kunde”, Krystal asked. “Do you know who sent that email to that reporter?”

“No one sent an email”, Su Ho said. “He admitted he was the one stalking us even before our debut. He took an interest in Chen because Ji Eun was in most of his pictures.”

“Why even say lie?” I asked.

“That’s what they do”, Kris said as he left. “Well, most of the time.”

“I’m just glad it’s over”, Chen walked to me. “I’ll take you home.”

“Go Ji Eun ssi”, Krystal called right before we were left the room. I looked at her feeling smaller the longer her eyes stayed on mine. “Give Kai my greetings and would you mind telling him it’s not nice to ignore a girl after spending an entire summer with her.”

With those words said, Krystal swung her hips before us and left the conference room. Her last words kept ringing in my head. She was implying that she spent time with Kai during summer… Summer? My mouth grew bigger. Kai and Krystal were together when he was in France. They were together! Together, as in spending time together? Or together, as in together, together? Kai had lied to me?

“Ji Eun”, Su Ho said. “You know she was trying to mess up with you right? She was in France during summer, and I don’t think Kai was near France then.” My lips turned into a firm line and I glared at Su Ho so hard his face turned red. I don’t know if it was anger or frustration. “You have got to be kidding me!” Su Ho ran out after Krystal.

“I’m sure nothing happened”, Chen patted my back. “Don’t think about it.” I forced a smile and followed him out.

At the Kim’s, I was greeted by Mr & Mrs Kim, my father, Min Ho and Kai. They were all in the living room and on the table in between them were about dozens of magazines. Normally this wouldn’t mean anything, but when I saw my own face on the journals I knew it was serious.

“You young lady”, my father said. “Have some explaining to do.” I bit my lip as I sat down next to Min Ho with my eyes glued on my knees.

“A journalist followed Chen around and I was seen in a lot of the pictures”, I started, “and videos.” I slowly looked up. “He thought we were a couple and since he had proof, he wrote an article and… now i… I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologise”, Mr. Kim said. “It’s your life and you have the right to be with whoever you want. The journalist is at fault for breaching your right to privacy.”

“What matters is that you’re alright honey”, my father said. “I can’t imagine how you feel finding out someone has been following your every move for months now.” I clenched my jaw in anger. I was stalked and I had my pictures taken. Wait, what kind of pictures had that guy taken of me? Had he followed me to school? Taken pictures of me at home? Or in my room?

“Ji Eun ah!” I looked up. All eyes were on me. “The girls at school weren’t too hard on you were they?” I shook my head and leaned forward to pick up the magazines, but Min Ho managed before me.

“Noona shouldn’t look at them”, he smiled. “I’ll take care of it.” I smiled back.

“I’ll go upstairs”, I said.

Little Min Ho was still so innocent. He was trying to protect me from mere newspapers when the real danger was the computer in my room that I ran to. Once on Naver, I saw that the top story of the hour was the dating scandal with more than 500 000 views. I had to build up courage to view the article because I was scared of the comments and a few minutes later I clicked the link, but the screen turned off before I could see anything. Confused, I turned around. Kai was standing next to the wall with the computer’s adapter in hand. He had pulled it out. We stared at each other.

“W…hy did you d-”

“Do you have a death wish?” He asked.

“What?”

“Why would you want to torture yourself with those comments?” he asked. “You know how mean people on the internet are.”

“I know”, I said. “But, I- I need to see the pictures.” He threw the newspapers Min Ho were holding earlier on the bed with a roughness that seemed to come from anger.

“There you go”, he said. His tone was cold. “Look at them.”

I took the first newspaper and looked at the cover titled: Rookie Idol Chen of Exo dating. The biggest picture was the one of Chen and me at the park, the day we fell asleep, when I had my arms around him on the bench.  Our faces were clear even in the dark. Next to it were two pictures from the same day. One was of us hugging at EXO’s photo shoot and the other was him tucking my hair behind my ears. Looking at it made me feel sick, but it didn't stop me. I had to see the others. The article didn’t matter to me as long as I knew which pictures were taken.  

I threw the first magazine behind me and took another one. The picture showed Chen and me on our pizza and baseball date at the most intimate moments. The rest of the magazines showed the same pictures as number 1 and 2 plus additional photos of us going to school or to each other’s houses and hanging with other idols during summer.

Those photos were not as bad as those the responsible magazine had picked. K.I news, that was to blame for the scandal, had literally chosen pictures that were most proof worthy but too offensive and personal for me.

I felt shame when I saw the main picture. It showed Chen and me the day Kris decided it would be fun to skinny dip. Chen and I were next to the pool in our underwear facing each other. His face was leaned so close to mine anyone could guess what happened next, but of course they would never guess the truth. It didn’t happen. Under it were other but small photos of us in the pool leaning against each other, laughing and so on.

In the background you could see the Exo members looking at us with smiles. I remembered that day very clearly. It was the first time Chen had tried to kiss me. 

Frustrated, I let go of the magazine.

“I can’t”, I cried. “It’s too much. They took it too far.” My heartbeat increased rapidly and everything around me was spinning. “Some of these pictures were private. They were things I thought were between Chen and me only and now they’re out there!” I pushed the magazines from my bed and they all scattered around the room. “They’re out there damn it!”

“Go Ji Eun”, Kai said calmly. “Calm down.”

“I can’t calm down!” I yelled as I looked at him. He was blurry in front me. “I can’t calm down when they’re out in the open Kim Jong In!”

“Yes”, he said. “You can. Just take a deep bre-”

“Stop telling me what to do!”

“Come”, his arms were open wide and his face as cold as ever. And even though I glared for a while in confusion and anger, I ended up jumping on him when it sunk into my brain he was only trying to help. Kai fell back on my bed with a grunt but he didn’t complain.  He simply my back and kissed me from time to time.

I don’t remember falling asleep, but I awoke the next day in a pair of strong arms and loved every second of it. I looked up to see his face but shied away because he was already looking at me.

“How long have you been watching me?” I asked.

“Since about 6 am”, he answered. “It’s 9 now.”

“You creep”, I joked. “We’re late for school.” I tried getting up, but he forced me down on him again. “What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for an opportunity.”

“To do what?”

“This.” He the side putting me under him, and kissed my lips.

“Ya”, I tried pushing him away. “I didn’t brush my teeth.”

“So?” He pinned my arms up above my head making it impossible for me to move and smirked. A devilish smirk, that made my heart tremble with excitement. And then he kissed me slowly and then passionately, just the way I liked it. 

He pressed his body weight on me making it that much more intimate and his kisses grew hungrier by the second making me crave for more. Kai went down my neck, first he pressed his lips gently as if he was following a road and then he focused on one single spot and I felt pleasure. It was just like last time in the tent, but this time it was stronger.

Kai switched back to my lips and after a very steamy kiss, he followed to my collarbone. As things heated up, he threw my blazer across the room and undid the buttons of my shirt leaving my body in a bra and skirt. In turn, I undressed and left him topless and so we kissed with our hands on every part of each other’s bodies. Kai’s fingers felt amazing on my skin and his sunkissed body was firm under my hands. 

I bit his lower lip causing a moan to escape his lips and giggles to escape mine. I sat on top of him feeling in charge  and I kissed Kai’s making him gasp. My lips followed the lines of his muscles and I focused on leaving my mark on the left side of his lower abdomen. I was so immersed in it, I could barely hear Kai’s heavy pants, but I heard them in time.

“Oh my god!” I recognised the mocking voice and ceased what I was doing. My head slowly turned to the left towards the door and Kai threw a blanket on top of me. Inside the room stood Chen, Tao, Su Ho, Lu Han, Kris, Lime and Se Hun.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Kai sighed. Everyone immediately left except for Kris and Su Ho. Kris was cracking up and Su Ho's eyes were awkwardly glued on the ceiling.

“Daebak!” Kris laughed. “Wow! You guys sure know how to have fun.”

“Ya!” I yelled. “You bunch of erts! Get out!” I threw a book on them and they left without closing the door behind them. I exhaled in defeat.

“This is unbelievable!” I said as I got dressed. “There’s absolutely no way to have some privacy around here!”

“Ji Eun”, Kai sounded annoyed. “You drooled on my sweater.” I turned around and saw him looking at his cashmere sweater. “Look!” He swung it in front of me. “It’s all over it.”

“Bwo?” I laughed. “People just barged in here and the only thing you care about is- is a sweater?”

“Do you know how much it costs?” He asked. I scoffed and l put one hand on my hips and pointed the other at the door.

“You too”, I said. “Out.”  He didn’t move at first but when I raised my brow he immediately left with a sneer. I followed him out while looking at my friends that were waiting in the sofas.

“Nice hickey”, Kris commented when Kai passed by. In turn, Kai threw his sweater at Kris who got hit in the face. I sneaked a proud smile whilethe others laughed. “Aish… You really need to loosen up, Kim Jong In. Tsk!” Kai went to his room and I sat down next to Lu Han.

“What are you guys doing here anyway?” I asked.

“Well we came here yesterday”, Lime answered, “But Mrs. Kim said you were asleep.”

“We wanted to ask if you were okay”, Lu Han continued. “You know with the scandal yesterday. We didn’t really see you in school because of Alice a-”

“I’m better than I was yesterday thank you”, I looked around. “Still angry, but I’m going to get over it.”

“They released the statement by the way”, Chen spoke. “And the police have been involved.”

“Police?” I asked.

“Because K.I news released pictures of under aged teens in their undergarments”, Kris explained. “It’s illegal and now they have to take down that one picture.”

“That makes me feel better”, I said.

“Glad to hear”, Lime gave me a reassuring smile.

“How are you holding up Jong Dae ah?” I asked. “Your fans aren’t angry are they?”

“Some are, some aren’t and then we have the sasaeng fans who are just horrible”, Chen closed his eyes. “I told them not to curse you but they keep doing it.”

“Don’t bother”, I said. “It’s okay as long as they do not hate on you. You guys…” I turned to Kris and Su Ho. “Your idol lives hasn’t become hell because of me I hope.”

“It’s always been hell at one point”, Su Ho honestly replied. “But I think you managed to put our name out there, so I’ll just look at the bright side of it all.” Laugther erupted and thankfully enlightened the room.

“Kunde”, I glanced at each and every one of them. “Why are you all here? I thought there was school.”

“They closed school today because of the reporters”, Se Hun answered. “It’s such a shame. I was looking forward to eating those cold noodles.”

“Do you guys want to eat have lunch at my dad’s instead?” I asked.

“Yes!” Se Hun immediately agreed. The others were in on it too.

“I’ll just take a quick shower”, I said.

About 20 min later, I was blow-drying my hair and getting dressed in a pair of skinny jeans and a simple shirt. Someone entered the room while I was putting on make-up and perfume.

“Zitao”, I said. “You haven’t spoken since I saw you. Are you alright?”

“Come here”, he said with a voice unlike his. He did not look alright at all and I worriedly went to give him a sisterly hug. “I’ve missed you.”

“You saw me yesterday”, I laughed. “Remember? Before your date with the dentist?”

“I know but I keep thinking about not being there for you lately”, he said. “And I’m sorry. I’m to blame for that article. If I hadn’t told you about that summer job, you wouldn’t have known Chen and none of this would have happened. Not with Alice, not with this.  I’m really sorry.”

“Aww oppa”, I his hair gently. “It’s not your fault. None of us could have foreseen it and besides I’m grateful for that summer job. I got to know Chen and other amazing people. I know I should have thanked you before, but I’m doing it. Thank you Tao oppa, for being the brother I never had.”

“And as your brother”, he said. “I am asking you to slow it down with Kai. I still don’t fully trust him.”

“Arasso”, I smiled and grabbed my coat along with my oversize and beige coloured scarf. Back the mini living room everyone was having a conversation that died down when I spoke, “I’m done.” When I saw Kai was seated with them in the mini living room, I couldn’t help but be proud.

“Oh”, Kris commented. “Where did the original Ji Eun go?”

“Oppa”, I said. “You be careful with your words.”

“Is that a threat?” He laughed.

“Shall we go?” Lime asked. The bunch of us took our time down the stairs out of the house.

“Subway or buss?” Se Hun asked.

“I think the subway”, Su Ho answered. “It’ll be a good idea to let people see that the scandal isn’t affecting us.”

“Well then”, Se Hun turned left. “This way.”

“Before we go downtown”, Kris said, “I think we need to do something first.”

“What?” Kai asked. Kris looked at me with doubt in his eyes and I knew. I knew exactly what he meant.